New Equipment!

Our new photography lights have arrived!  These are 2 LED light boxes on tripods, used for professional photography.  With one on each side of the bed you should be able to photograph injuries with more "natural daylight" and have better outcomes.  They are easy to use, labeled and ready for you.  Each one has batteries, but there is an AC adaptor (in the cart) in case we need to take them "on the scene"!  Please let me know how you like them.

National Forensic Nurse Week

National Forensic Nurses Week is Nov. 11-17, 2012.  The service you provide to victims and their families is critical to their healing, vital in your community, and valuable to MUSC.  Thank you for your dedication, time away from home, the nights you stay up, the weekends you spend at the hospital, the chance for healing you give to the victims you serve.  Look at the MUSC Facebook page for info about sexual assault!  We have made the big time!

IAFN has produced some great videos about forensic nursing.  Take a moment to refresh yourself, acknowledge your own Greatness, and celebrate your work by watching a few videos.  This link will take you to the IAFn webpage, then click on  Forensic Nursing Documentary to see the videos.  Thank you to all MUSC SANEs!

SA and Risk of HIV Transmission

A notice has been posted in the exam with this info.  This should help guide you in counseling your patients that may be at high risk for HIV transmission.  It is based on assault facts, injury status and assailant status.   There is additional info in the SANE reference book. 

HIV TRANSMISSION EXPOSURE

Type of Exposure	Estimated Risk
Anal penetration with HIV + source	0.5% (1 in 200) – 3.0% (6 in 200)
Vaginal penetration with HIV + source	0.1% (1 in 1000) – 0.2% (2 in 1000)
Oral penetration with ejaculation from HIV + source	Risk considered to be low, no conclusive data exists

FACTORS THAT INCREASE RISK OF HIV TRANSMISSION

1.      Genital mucosal injury with anal or vaginal penetration

2.      Assault by multiple assailants

3.      Assailant who: is male having sex with men, has STI’s, is an IV drug user, has multiple sex partners, trades sex for drugs and/or money

ADVISE PATIENT TO CONSULT DR LAZENBY IF:

1.      Assault occurred within the past 72 hours.

2.      Patient/or assailant characteristics meets the above risk factors

TO REACH DR LAZENBY:

1.      Between 0700 and midnight,  Page Dr L at ID # 14681

2.      After midnight email her at lazenbgb@musc.edu with patient name, MRN, phone number, date of birth and pharmacy info.  Send same info to Nancy Hall at hallnj@musc.edu

3.      Notify SANE office that pt has been referred to DR Lazenby for HIV nPEP

SANEs and CODIS

Election Day - I hope everyone is able to get to their local polling station to take part in our demonstration of democracy!!  Regardless of your political leanings - I believe it is important to vote.  We can easily take for granted the efforts of a handful of women who risked everything to be sure that we would have a chance to speak our minds!

Great news from Charleston Police Department: MUSC SANEs have helped to pull a dangerous criminal off the streets!  Because of the work of our SANEs, 5 individual sexual assaults have been linked to one person.  That person was identified from the FBI's DNA database: CODIS.  CODIS stands for Combined DNA Index System. There are over 10 million DNA profiles, all are anonymous, joined by numbers to protect individual identity until a match occurs.  Offenders who have been incarcerated are required to provide buccal swabs or blood so their profiles are loaded into CODIS.

Samples from the kits we collect are analyzed by SLED, and the unknown profiles are entered into the CODIS system.  The data is renewed weekely on a national level, so our unknown profiles are compared against data entered from all 50 states, hoping for a match.   Once a match occurs, the information is released to the appropriate law enforcement agency. This summer, 3 MUSC SANE cases were submitted to CODIS database - and all returned the same "hit".  An additional 2 assaults were later linked to the same profile.  That person is now behind bars - awaiting trial.


FYI:
Please remember to fill out the Case Study #1 and bring to Janette's for our next meeting.  I have yet to figure out how to load the link here, but if you need a copy, email me and I will send it. 

Did you find the guest speaker at the last meeting valuable?  Is that something you would like to continue?  What topics do you want to see addressed in the future?  Let us know!